I’m Mark Kirk, candidate for the United States Senate and I approve this message.

I coordinated the Project “Abuelita” that reunited grandparents with their grandchildren in Illinois.

Working as your Senator, I will help Latino families who want to start their own businesses and combat gangs.

These are difficult times. Latino families in Illinois deserve a senator who works for them.

Thoughts?

…Adding… More on Project “Abuelita” from the campaign…

“Working with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park, and his Latino Advisory Board secured tourist visas for the 13 grandparents in a program called Project ‘Abuelita’ - Spanish for grandmother.” (The News Sun, 8/4/06)

“The first wave of seniors came in December from Tonatico - another Mexican town with a large population living in Waukegan. Kirk is planning to help another wave of grandparents from Tonatico and La Luz visit over the summer. He is also trying to start the program in San Jose, Guanajuato, which also has a large number of emigrants living in Waukegan.” (The News Sun, 5/1/06)

…Adding More… The Giannoulias campaign is suggesting that Kirk is releasing a Web video ahead of the expected Dream Act vote next week to cover himself if he votes against it.

…Adding Still More… Giannoulias campaign response…

“Washington insider Mark Kirk is at it again - this time lying to Latino families about his record on issues that matter to them. With this new ad, it seems Congressman Kirk misremembers that he has been opposing common-sense immigration reform and has failed to support the DREAM Act. That’s not a champion Illinois’ Latino families can trust,” said Kathleen Strand.

While Kirk was reuniting families, Alexi was running his bank into the ground, right?

Seriously, good ad IF Project “Abuelita” is known in the Hispanic community. Anyway, it is a good strategy to outreach into the Hispanic community which is often overlooked, especially if Kirk has a couple of more Spanish ads in the bag to run as the campaign wears on.

this is a very good ad. in many other cities and states
public officials are adept in this same fashion and do
ads or public service announcements in Spanish. You
would think the Dems would have jumped on this. oh,
wait, they are all about dividing the pie among the tribes,
not communicating.

Sometimes people overlook that Kirk’s current district has a sizable Latino population, especially in Wheeling, Waukegan, North Chicago, etc., and that he is used to interacting with them, and representing this population and their needs–not just the 10th’s “rich North Shore business owners.”

I’m very happy to see this wholly legitimate Spanish language outreach ad for his senate run.

Kirk is fluent in Spanish. Even though the ad does not address any issues Hispanics in Illinois face, The average Spanish speaking voter will like it and I believe he will get lots of miles out of this ad merely by the fact that he went and made it.

Not going to work. He refuses to co-sponsor the DREAM Act with Durbin for immigrant kids, and said that birth control in Mexico is a solution for illegal immigration - ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS! Refuses to come up with sensible solution for the 11 million undocumented here. Pandering is not going to fool the Latinos.

Other than using a word that doesn’t exist and invoking a program that no one outside of those he’s helped have heard of, it’s great. The fact that no one else is advertising in Spanish will be noted by Latino voters. I hope other statewide candidates take note.

It is a good ad, but not great. The spoken part is fine. My problem is that it lacks Kirk interacting with anyone. If his program was such a hit, you would think he could have gotten one of those families living in Waukegan to sit with him for the ad. I give it a B

I think it is a bright idea–particularly when many other R’s (close the border, bash the immigrants, etc.) don’t seem to care about the Latino vote. Smart move, pretty decent ad, though he has a dreadful Gringo accent.

this is the one area that you got to hand it to kirk. he has long taken an interest in mexican-related issues and he has every right to crow about it. don’t know if this wins many votes, but i’ll hand him this one…

he went to school in mexico and there are yard signs all over the liberal parts of the north suburbs with his name in hebrew-a direct appeal to jewish voters. Alexi is going to take a beating in the latino and jewish communities if he doesn’t get his act together stat.

Good for him for reaching out to the Latino voters. It’s smart. As others have noted, the DREAM Act really is where it’s at for Senate candidates, so I’m not sure this ad helps overcome his opposition to a sensible policy. We’ll see.

“Common-sense immigration reform” is a matter of opinion. I think that means building a brick wall, along the Mexican border, and deporting as many illegal aliens as possible. Rep. Kirk disagrees. He tries to help the illegals.

===I think that means building a brick wall, along the Mexican border===

What, chain link with razor wire is too tacky? How about the Canadian border? Don’t we need to close that too? Or is it OK for Canadians to waltz right in and take all of the comedy writing jobs that Americans don’t want?

Last time I checked we don’t have an illegal immigration problem involving Canadians. I’d like us to take action to deal with actual problems, not pretend ones. The only influx of Canadians into the US is for our health care facilities and they happily pay for services rendered. I don’t believe we should slow that down.

There can be a commonsense immigration reform package if the first two steps are a secure border and strict enforcement of current laws. Many people would be surprised that many conservatives and Republicans would then support some sort of integration of illegals into the legal system.

Applies to people from 15 to 35(!!!) and also lets them sponsor their own relatives for admission, so it’s a larger amnesty than advertised. As for the existing illegal population, it went down by one million in a year. How did I miss all those people being deported?

Oh, they went home on their own. As the rest would, if only the LAW would be enforced

And, since some ability in English is a requirement for citizenship, I have never seen how foreign language ads are “legitimate”.

I’ve been collecting old and unusual political buttons and bumper stickers for a long time. Especially in Chicago’s melting pot there have been specific cultural “reach-outs” in various languages by candidates, pretty much forever. (Including radio ads.) It’s a sign of respect and inclusiveness, sometimes humor–not necessarily an indication that the “target” can’t speak or understand English. At least that’s how I’ve always seen it.

A Savy well produced producto of the RSCC….Im impressed with his espanol. In the rovian mold of W it wasnt so much that a right wing Repub would do anything for the community but he made a gilitzy effort to do some outreach. Another page out of the book of votes democrats continually take for granted

I’ll give Kirk points for releasing an ad that most conservatives would never touch. Now, if he actually supported these people and the communities they live in, I’d be more impressed.

While they work for people like him and his rich friends in Highland Park and Lake Forest, they’re forced to live in poverty and overcrowded homes in communities like Waukegan, which have become financially crippled from the massive increase of illegal aliens.

I can’t stand when politicians attach the word “common sense” to a contentious issue. If these issues were common sense, they’d be easy to solve. Immigration reform has too many moving parts and legal nuances for there to be any one “common sense” solution.

Here’s a common sense issue: fix potholes. One particular person’s conception of immigration reform (regardless of what it is)? Not common sense.